We won't know whether this particular smoke will lead to an actual fire, but at this point, it doesn't look like the allegations concerning bribes from Rolls-Royce to an executive at Air China and China Eastern are going to go away quietly without formal investigations.

The latest allegations are contained in postings by a blogger operating under the pseudonym of "soaringdragon" and related to deals worth a total of $2bn (£1.25bn) with Air China in 2005 and China Eastern in 2010. They claim an executive who worked at both airlines, Chen Qin, accepted payments as an intermediary in those deals.

Rolls-Royce revealed last month that the Serious Fraud Office had approached the company over allegations of malpractice in Indonesia and China, prompting the Derby-based manufacturer to conduct its own investigation through a law firm, Debevoise & Plimpton.

Stay tuned. We'll have to wait and see whether the UK and/or U.S. authorities move on this. Apparently the Chinese airline executive was arrested over here some time ago, although it's not clear what ultimately happened with the PRC investigation.